On Friday, at San Diego Comic-Con, IDW had a panel so large—that some of the members had to play musical chairs in a room packed with fans of their two majority properties—G.I. Joe and Transformers. IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Chris Ryall, acted as the AV guy to Denton Tipton’s panel host for the following creators:
Shane McCarthy (writer), Chris
Mowry (writer), Alex Milne (artist), Marty Isenberg (writer), Marcelo Matere
(artist), Josh Perez (colorist), Klaus Scherwinski (artist), Robbie Musso
(artist) and Casey Collier (artist)
That’s quite a talent-heavy
panel, right? Well, midway through the panel, an elite, highly trained strike
force comprised of Andy Schmidt, Robert Atkins, and the legendary Larry Hama
usurped the stage from the Transformers crew to answer questions about the new
G.I. Joe projects coming from IDW later this year and in early 2009.
Here’s
how things went down:
Tipton introduced the panel—to a roar
of applause in the tightly packed convention room. The first slide shown on the
screen was cover art from the All Hail Megatron mini-series written by Shane
McCarthy, with artwork by Guido Guidi—who unfortunately could not attend the
convention. McCarthy spoke about the divided nature of diehard Transformer fans
over the controversial storyline in All Hail Megatron mini; saying, “I heard
lots of good feedback,” laughing, “and some passionate criticism” which gained
a laugh from the audience. He said he was happy with the book—and approved of
the love/hate divide it has created with fans.
Tipton and
Ryall indicated that the run of the first issue of All Hail Megatron is nearly
sold out and that it would be the first Transformer comic book at IDW to
completely sell-out which caused the audience to break into more applause. Slides
of several issues of All Hail Megatron were shown as Shane McCarthy said, “It’s
depressing; some people will not like me anymore,” as a slide of the silhouette
of the Autobot Ironhide was shown appearing to be mourning. The panel laughed
as McCarthy said, “Ironhide is having a good man-cry. He went on to describe
the event as “galaxy-spanning” in nature and he took a shot at the
sensibilities of the audience by finishing his thought with, “…obviously
Prime’s out of commission.”
The next slide presented was an
image of the new character, “Drift”, whose car-mode is that of a stylized
Japanese drift car. When asked if the character would become part of the Gen 1
universe—a hush fell over the panel as all eyes fell on Chris Ryall as he
smiled and gave a silent “thumbs up” signal. In fact, this character also marks
the first time a character created by the IDW line of Transformers has been
approved by Hasbro to be added to their line of toys—an announcement that
elicited another roaring wave of applause from the audience. In describing
Drift, McCarthy joked, “He’s very Japanesey.”
The next slide
bore the title “Transformers: Revelation”—Tipton informed the audience, “Simon
Furman isn’t going anywhere,” indicating the popular Transformer writers
extended stay in the Transformers universe. Slides of E.J. Su’s artwork from
the project were also shown.
Next up, Tipton spoke with Marty
Isenberg about upcoming projects involving Transformers: Animated: The Arrival.
With Dario Brizuela handling the art chores, this book ties into the latest
Transformers cartoon series’ first season. At this point, Isenberg beckoned
into the audience at a girl dressed as the cartoon version of Starscream—and stated,
“Starscream—you are the first official Transformers: Animated costume at
Comic-Con,” which caused another roar of laughter and applause. Isenberg
indicated that The Arrival would have a surprise cast member, Oil Slick, a
character who was originally slated to only exist as a toy in the line from
Hasbro.
The next slide showed Transformers: The Reign of
Starscream—a tie-in to the original movie universe of the Transformers. With
Mowry writing the series and Perez coloring the artwork of Milne, this new
mini-series continues the action after the first Transformers movie ended—introducing
new characters and returning the Decepticons to Cybertron to rebuild the
All-Spark Cube—to which Mowry added, “…but things go terribly wrong.” He also
stated, “Readers will see a new side to Starscream.” It was mentioned briefly
that Soundwave was slated to be in the mini-series but certain aspects of the
plot could not be worked out.
Another slide showed the title
Transformers: Destiny, a new mini-series linking the two movies, Mowry
indicated that this story would follow The Reign of Starscream. Issues of
continuity were discussed and previous problems happened—Ryall stated, “We’re
trying to stay strictly within the established continuity […] unlike the last
time when we tried with the best of intentions.” Mowry added, “Hopefully, we’ll
be getting everyone amped for the sequel.”
The next slide
showed a picture of Grimlock—for Transformers: Maximum Dinobots—written by
Simon Furman with art by Nick Roche; this story would be carrying out threads
left behind from the ‘Headmaster’ storyline. Another slide was shown—this time
of Megatron holding Reflector; in mock homage to the Joker on the cover of A
Killing Joke—which elicited a big chuckle from the panel and the audience.
The
next slide, a cover to Transformers Spotlight: Blurr caused a huge eruption of
cheers and applause from the audience. Shane McCarthy, the writer of the book,
said, “Casey Collier nails everything he does,” in regards to the interior
pages being shown on the screen.” He added, “It’s Blurr as you’ve never seen
him before,” as he explained the necessity of updating the character to give
him relevancy, “ he’s got a new attitude—this story is set before ‘The Great
War’—so he’s kind of a prick.” Casey Collier lauded McCarthy’s writing
abilities, saying, “I fell in love with this story—and you guys will too.”
Tipton
introduced another slide—Transformers: The Thirteen—written by Furman and
slated for 2009 will describe the origin story of the 13 original Transformers.
Tipton then quickly flipped to Transformers Spotlight: Cosmos, saying, “This is
a HUGE project,” which elicited another large laugh from the audience. Chris
Mowry, writer of the book, said, “You people shouldn’t joke about things so much—because
when you do they come true.” He indicated that he would like to tie the
one-shot into some continuity—possibly something prehistoric but “not quite Dinobot.”
At
this point the slideshow ended and the Transformer crew were asked to take a
seat so that some guys who liked G. I. Joe could come talk to the audience. Andy
Schmidt, editor of IDW G.I. Joe, escorted artist Robert Atkins and legendary
G.I. Joe scribe Larry Hama onto the stage in another eruption of praise; the
first slide to their presentation being a Dave Dorman cover for the first
issue. Several pieces of concept art were shown: the Baroness, Scarlett, Snake
Eyes and Destro—with Atkins stating, “I wanted to update their costumes
slightly while still keeping the classic look.” Another slide was shown of the
retailer incentive cover for the first issue of the new series by 30 Days of
Night co-creator, Ben Templesmith, depicting Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes
destroying a HISS tank which was reminiscent of an older story from the Marvel continuity
(G.I. Joe #46).
Schmidt indicated that there would be both a
“classic” G.I. Joe continuity and a movie continuity much like IDW’s
Transformer line—adding that there would be a four issue prequel mini-series
for the movie set for release in 2009 as well as a four issue mini- that would
adapt the movie into comic format. Schmidt praised Atkins artwork for the
“classic” line and said, “Oh yeah, and we got some guy named Larry who seemed
like he knew the characters well enough to write them.”
Larry
Hama spoke to the audience praising IDW, stating, “[IDW] is giving me a chance
to do the things I’ve always wanted to do,” in relation to the characters and
the overall directions of the stories. He said the direction of the stories
becoming more realistic and grittier. Lama spoke about his own personal
expectations that he has for his work—describing himself as “evolving” and
saying, “I’m not doing what I was doing 25 years ago—hopefully, I’m doing
better,” expressing his desire to focus on attaining a wider audience for the
G.I. Joe readership.
Atkins again expressed his pleasure
about working with IDW and Denton Tipton particularly. He elaborated on the
desire to pay specific attention to the character chemistry and their unique
visual designs—indicating that most of the characters were already visually
iconic by saying, “Why would I change things terribly? If it’s not broke...you
know the rest.” He described any updates to the characters as being practical
for the purpose of making them more contemporary—citing the desire to make
physical tweaks to affects like belts and grenades—to make the characters seem
more functional.
Tipton went on to mention that issue #0 of
the series would be hitting shelves in October for .99 cents and that the first
issue of the series would be out in January. Incidentally, #0 will feature a 16
page story and a ton of extras like concept art and more.
Turning
to questions, Andy Schmidt addressed the audience with the question, “Destro: Fuzzy
red collar?” which gained a verbal agreement and a correction from a front-row
audience member of, “Oh, you mean red fox collar,” which elicited a slight
amount of laughter.
One member of the audience asked how this
new iteration of Cobra Commander would compare to the character from the
cartoon and the original Marvel series—complaining that the character was too
whiny and weak; Larry Hama responded by saying, “Oh, he will be a total evil
bad ass this time around. He described the difference between Cobra Commander
and Destro; describing Destro as being somewhat honorable.
An
audience member asked the panel the typical, “Who’s your favorite character?” In
response, Robert Atkins described his love for the vehicles of the ‘80s toy
line and how certain toys played on his inner-childhood memories of the
toys—like the H.I.S.S. tank and the 8 foot aircraft carrier. Schmidt admitted a
certain amount of fondness for Stalker; saying, “He was like the least
specialized of all the characters and could sort of kick anyone’s ass if he
needed to.” Hama
smiled and said, “As a writer, I’d have to say Snake Eyes because he’s the
easiest guy to write,” which created groans and chuckles about the room.
When
asked about ninjas and their appearance in the series, Schmidt joked, “The
title of this book is actually ‘G.I. Joe: No Ninjas’,” which created more
laughter and applause. Hama indicated how it was important not to get into the
dilemma of taking away the focus of the whole team; eluding that Hasbro and the
early Marvel title suffered because the focus on the fan-favorite characters of
the time helped to sidetrack the book quite a bit. The same audience member
asked, “Well, what about Storm Shadow…who will he be working for?” to which
Andy Schmidt mocked a moment of silence and said, “Yeah…sure.”
When
asked about the existence of the Devil’s Due series and how it will pertain to
this series—Denton Tipton was clear that the IDW series was a complete
relaunch. Schmidt went further by saying, “We thought it was important that we
stay out of the way of DDP so they could do their own thing,” in reference to
attempting to segue the books into one another. The panel briefly spoke about
the problematic nature of the Marvel series in connection to the Hasbro toy
line—and how the marketing of new toys forced story telling elements of the
title to a secondary position. Schmidt added, “Now, everything is already in
front of us—we can create a new sense of logic for the equipment and why Cobra
and G.I. Joe use them.” Hama
expressed his happiness at being able to “re-tell the story from day one” and
the challenge of “compressing the other 25 years” was not something he wanted
to do.
When asked about the duration of the new title Andy
Schmidt told the happy audience that new book was indeed ongoing. An audience
member blurted out something about reprinting the original Marvel series—as to
how much would be reprinted with Chris Ryall and Andy Schmidt agreeing that IDW
had no problem with the idea of reprinting the entirety of the Marvel series. Larry
Hama closed out the G.I. Joe Q & A by describing his work on the upcoming
book as “an ongoing that is a series of arcs.”
With time
running short, the Transformer entourage was hustled back onto the stage and
asked a couple of questions in regards to potential toys from various IDW books
which garnered a “No.” and about the release for the third season of
Transformers: Animated which Marty Isenberg speculated would start around
Spring of ’09.
